Onnanu Nammal: A great Friday Fiesta in Abudhabi by Malayalam Film Actors brought alive by AMMA and Asianet in a fundraiser for the rehabilitation of flood victims in Kerala

Asianet coverage of the event, Onnanu Nammal in Abu Dhabi.

A galaxy of Malayalam film stars converged at the Abu Dhabi Armed Officers Club in the Capital of the United Arab Emirateson December 7, for a live-wire song-dance evening, titled: “Onnanu Nammal” (We are One), brought alive by the film body, Association of Malayalam Movie Artistsor popularly known as AMMAalong with Asianet, apparently to raise funds for the rehabilitation of the flood victims. Most of the top actors in the Malayalam film industry made their presence felt, including Mammoottyand Mohanlal, who spiced up with evening with their satirical skits, which filled the crowd with excitement.

Actor Meera Nandan, an exaptriate in the UAE herself, speaks to Asianet in a pre-event interview. Video: Facebook/Asianet.

Besides that Mohanlal and Manju Warrier, whose new film, Odiyanis due for the release, rendered a song from this fantasy thriller movie. Also, the new generation sensation, Dulquar Salmaan, also the son of Mammooty entertained the youth with a foot tapping song that made the evening crowd sizzle at the peak of excitement. Also, the icing in the proverbial cake was the percussion performance by the actor Jayaram, which also created a lot of buzz. Jayaram, who shot into fame with his Mimicry show called Mimix Parade and later forayed into Malayalam tinsel town, proved the crowd that his mimicking ability had not diminished one bit, over the years, as he was fully involved in films. The huge gathering were enjoying the winter weather as well as the rib-tickling voice initiations of many actors including actor, Kamal Haasan.

Artists at the Abudhabi Onnanu Nammal Event.

The cynosure of all eyes were at Asha Sharat, the Dubai-based performing artist and Malayalam film actor, who entertained the audience with her graceful dance performance, which was followed by a comical skit by Mammooty and Mohalal acting on stage as bitter foes.

The six hour evening was replete with a slew of programmes, which will be telecast soon by the Asianet television channel soon. The charity fund raising event came to a close with a range of programmes making the crowd happy.

Malayalam Film Industry Crew in the Aircraft

These artists organised several programmes under AMMA as part of its efforts to collect 2.5 million Dirhams or Rs. 50 million that will go to the Chief Minister’s Flood Relief Fund. Many artists from the Malayalam film industry including Lakshmi Gopalasamy, Manoj K Jayan, Siddique, Tiny Tom, Aju Varghese, Jagadeesh, Mukesh, Maniyanpilla Raju, Vineeth Srinivasan, Indrans, Rachana Narayanankutty, and many others who joined the ensemble and made the evening an forgettable one.

While speaking about Onnanu Nammal, Vineeth Radhakrishnan said, “Apparently, Onnanu Nammal was a fund-raising event held in Abu Dhabi, jointly organised by AMMA and Asianet. As we are all aware that the kind of devastation the recent flood in Kerala had wreaked.

Group Photo Session at Onnanu Nammal.

This programme was not only for raising fund to help the flood victims but also to pray for them. So, it is a great cause that we have conducted this event with utmost sincerity and camaraderie. Not confining only to AMMA, other organisations like the Technician Association and all other fraternity members have cooperated and no wonder there was solid presence of this many actors and other artists who came to Abu Dhabi and organised such a big event. The diaspora crowd came in good numbers buying tickets for this great cause and took part in this charitable event and shared their prayers also for those who lost everything in the flood. I would like to thank AMMA, Asianet, all senior actors who organised this event leading from the front and the expatriates of the emirate who turned up in great numbers.”

Kannada Actor Ambareesh dies

Well known Kannada actor turned politician Malavalli Huchche Gowda Amarnath, popularly known as Ambareesh passed away yesterday in Bangalore at a private hospital due to cardiac arrest. The 66 year old was in Congress and became Union Minister, whose wife Sumalatha is also a successful actress in Malayalam and Kannada movies. The couple have a son, Abishek Gowda.

Abhishek Gowda, Sumalatha and Ambareesh.

The actor turned politician’s foray into the Kannada film was Naagarahaavuin 1972, directed by Puttanna Kanagal. After the doing the cameo role, Ambareesh has acted in excess of 208 films. All Kanagal directed movies including Paduvaaralli Pandavaru, Shubhamangala Masanada Hoovuand Ranganayaki were super hits. In 2010, Ambareesh beat the record of legendary Kannada actor late Rajkumar by acting in 206 movies as a lead actor, while he also beat the fellow debutante Vishnuvardhan’srecord of 230 films. Ambareesh has acted in Kannada, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam movies as a lead actor. Till now, none in the Kannada film industry had surpassed his record.

Notable movies of Ambareesh includes Antha, which was released in 1981, directed by Rajendra Singh Babu. The film, which was essentially taking a political dig told in a hilarious way was a box office hit and was also remade into Tamil and Hindi languages. Ambareesh has acted as a lead character in the Malayalam film Gaanam, directed by Sreekumaran Thampi, which as a musical movie, pairing with Lakshmi, which turned out to be a super hit. His wife Sumalathawas more popular in Malayalam film industryas she has acted with scores of lead actors of the day, including Mammootty and Mohanlal. However, Antha became very controversial as this film, for the first time in the history of Indian cinema, took on the politicians and government babusand showed in bad light, replete with corruption and nepotism. Inspired by Antha, a slew of films followed which included Chakravyuha and New Delhi. Chakravyuhawas remade into Hindi movie by the name Inquilaab, with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead, while New Delhi, with the same name was remade in Malayalam, with Mammoottyin the lead was a rage in Kerala. Other popular flicks of Ambareesh are Tony, Ranganayaki, Olavina Udugore, Rani Maharani, HongkongiliAgent Amar, Hrudaya Haadithu, Mannina Doni, Odathttidavaru to name a few.

The evolution of Ambareesh as an established actor, who was able to take up any character was through the Kannada film, Masanada Hoovu, where his performance was incredible, along with Elu Suttina Kote and his sole Malayalam movie, Gaanam. Ambareesh received critical acclaim for these three movies. Similarly, if you take his Mamateya Madilu or for that matter Hrudaya Haadithu and other films such as Mouna Raga or Elu Sutinaa Kote, in all these movies, Ambareesh has exhibited awesome performance and he carved a niche for himself in the Indian celluloid as one of the all time great actor. Though, the debut of Ambareeshwas with Vishnuvardhan, the former has acted with the then super star of Kannada film, Rajkumar. As Ambareesh was known for his charitable activities and resourcefulness amongst his film fraternity, he was known as Kaliyuga Karnaand Mandyada Gandu for being the rebel actor. For Antha, Ambareesh was conferred with Karnataka State Award, while he received the Best Actor for his performance in Antha and he further bagged Best Supporting Actor award for his performance in Masanada Hoovu. In addition to that Ambareesh also received a slew of other awards from other states such as NTR Award by the then combined Andhra Pradesh State, Film Fare Best Award for his acting skills in Olavina Udugore. Ambareesh, the actor’s career in the film industry came to a denouement when he received Film Fare Life Time Achievement Award. Last, but certainly not the least, Ambareesh was the only actor, who was asked to inaugurate the prestigious Mysore Dasara festival organised by the Karanataka Government. The last award he received from the film industry was the Government of Karnataka instituted Dr. Vishnuvardhan Award in 2011.

Political Innings

After quitting the film industry, Ambareesh took to politics, where he joined the Congress in 1994 only to leave the party two years later, protesting against him not been given a ticket to contest by the party high command. Nevertheless, Ambareesh moved to the Janata Dal and got the ticket to contest the 1998 Lok Sabha Poll from Mandya Constituency, where he tasted resounding victory by polling 4,31,439 votes trouncing the Congress candidate. Again Ambareesh went back to Congress and represented the prestigious Mandya Constituency for two more terms. In the 14th Lok Sabha, Ambareesh took oath as Union Minister of State for Information and Technology, eventually he quit the post clearly indicating displeasure over the Cauvery Tribunal award, nevertheless his resignation was not accepted by the party. However, his luck turned downhill in the May 2009 Lok Sabha Poll, where Ambareesh lost. Later, he extended support to HD Kumaraswamy in Kanakapura Parliament Election in ’90s and during the late ’90s to SM Krishna and KR Pete Krishna. Ambareesh was a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from 1998-1999, again MP from 1999-2004; yet another term as MP from 2004-2009, while he was Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting from October 24, 2006 to 2008, the same year he quit apparently protesting the Cauvery Dispute Tribunal verdict against Karnataka’s interest. Ambareesh had also served Deputy President of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee in 2012 and Ex-Minister in Karnataka Government in the Ministry of Housing (Vasathi).

After that he was not active in politics as all good things have to come to an end, his life also turned sour. The actor turned politician was down with breathing ailments in 2014 and since then he was in and out of hospitals in Bangalore and in the same year, Ambareesh was taken by the family members to the Singapore-based Mount Elizabeth Hospital for further treatment. The last four years he was recuperating and this year on November 24, 2018 (yesterday), Ambareesh was taken ill once again and was rushed to a private hospital in Bangalore. In fact, he had suffered a cardiac arrest from his residence and although the doctors tried to save his life, nevertheless, the end came at 10.15 P.M., where the doctors declared Ambareesh dead.

Ambareesh married Sumalatha on December 8, 1991 and the couple have a son, Abhishek Gowda, who, like his parents is into the film industry.

The proposed Rs.1,000 crore Mohanlal starer Mahabharata film project, Randamoozham, written by Malayalam author, MT Vasudevan Nair, to be produced by BR Shetty of the UAE Exchange and directed by VA Shrikumar Menon seems to be in limbo, if the report by news agency IANS is anything to go by. As per the media report, the author has asked the filmmakers to return his film script. Nair has approached the Munsif Court in Calicut to cancel the contract stating that he would return the advance money he had received from the filmmakers.

Randamoozham narrates the events of the Mahabharata through the perspective of Bheem. The author told the news agency that he wanted to get back his script from the filmmakers, apparently because of the inordinate delay in the take off of the project. He told IANS, “The agreement with the director was for three years and now it has become four years. Hence, I have asked for it.”

MT Vasudevan Nair had written the film’s script in both English and Malayalam. Financially backed by a UAE-based Indian businessman, Randamoozham was billed as the the costliest Indian bilingual project, noted the report.

On Facebook, the film’s director VA Shrikumar Menon explained that the project has been delayed due to “complicated financial plans” and because he was involved in another film, titled Odiyan. What is more, Menon had assured the author and fans waiting for Mohanlal’s film that the project is expected to take off in July 2019.

The original Facebook post written in Malayalam, means this, “I am at fault for not keeping him abreast of what was happening. I will very soon go and meet him and tell him about the progress. I was very busy with my present project Odiyan.”

It might be recalled that the big budget project was announced last year, when the leading actor of the Malayalam film industry, Mohanlal was roped in to play the role of Bheema, the second eldest of the five Pandva brothers. No other announcements regarding the film’s casting were made, added the report.

The deceased violinist Balabhaskar was laid to rest at the electric crematorium, Shanti Kavadam in Tycaud, Thiruvanathapuram with full state honours this morning. Earlier, the maestro’s mortal remains were kept at his University College and Kalabhavan for public view, where thousands of his fans thronged and paid their last respects. Then the mortal remains of Balabhaskar was kept at his residence at Thirumala. Around 11.15, his body was laid to rest at the crematorium. The funeral rights were performed with full state honours. Thousands of people thronged the Shanthi Kavadam as well to take a last glimpse of the musician. Balabhaskar’s well-wishers had kept a replica of violin on his chest before being cremated. The maestro used to tell his friends that violin was his lover.

It may be recalled that on September 25, 2018 the car in which, Balabhaskar, his wife Lakshmi and daughter Tejeswini Bala were travelling met with an accident. The incident occurred near Pallipuram in Thiruvanathapuram. Apparently, they were coming from Trishur after visiting the Guruvayoor Temple for a thanksgiving prayer, when the driver dosed off and rammed the car on a tree. His two-year old daughter Tejeswini, who was born after 15 years of marriage, died instantly, while all the three people, the driver Balabaskar and Lakshmi were admitted to a private hospital with grievous injuries. While undergoing treatment, Balabhaskar died of cardiac arrest yesterday at 1.00 AM. Lakshmi is still in the ICU. Thousands of his fans are yet to fathom the reality that their icon is no more. Many renowned personalities and people from all walks of life took to social media and posted their condolence messages. Mohanlal, Mohini Dey, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Sivamani, Shankar Mahadevan, Manju Warrier, Dulquer Salmaan, AR Rahman, Prithviraj, Stephen Devassy, Navya Nair, Neeraj Madhav, Shaan Rahman, Vidhu Prathap, Mammooty, Manjari and many more either tweeted or posted their condolence messages on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms.